HomeLittle Darlings newsletter
A big hello from the office. We have been very busy this month at Little Darlings. We have a new race track in our back playground. The children have loved using it, and of course been very imaginative. Today Rebecca and Elsie used the shape of the track as an aeroplane and played a wonderful game together.
We are having an entertainment book fundraiser. Please feel free to have a look at the entertainment book we have on display in the office. The phone app is actually a great option. You can have more than one user on the app which is great, so in my house my husband and I both have it on our phones for when we are out, and then there is no worries about remembering the book. There are so many vouchers including bowling, movies, take away and many restaurants.
Please ensure all families have updated all their data on the mygov website, as the new child care subsidy will start on the 1st July. For more information please see our Facebook page, or go onto our website for the link as well as a new subsidy estimator.
We are having our child care photo day on Wednesday 16th May. If your child does not attend on a Wednesday, please feel free to bring your child to the centre before 9am to have their photo taken. Price lists and correspondence regarding the day will be sent via emails.
On Monday 30th April at 6:45pm, we are having Lisa from Kids Matters Occupational health visit the centre and is conducting a free seminar for parents. Please feel free to come along and join us for this.
Also this month, we are having a dentist visit our centre on Wednesday 2nd May. The preschoolers have been working hard discussing healthy bodies. They are excited to learn about oral hygiene.
DATES TO REMEMBER :
Monday 30th April - Kids Matter Occupational Therapy talk 6:45pm
Tuesday 1st May - Dentist visit
Monday 7th May - public holiday (centre closed)
Wednesday 16th May - Child care photo day
Hello to all our nursery families, we are having a great time this year, Allira and Violet have transitioned smoothly up to the toddler room and enjoying their new room and friends. At the moment some of us are focussing on self-help skills with sitting at the table for meals, using the steps in the bathroom and washing our hands at the basin to prepare for our next transition to the Toddler Room. The children are learning some simple sign language together, this has been very exciting to put into practise. Some of our parents have been doing it at home with their children and I was very excited to use it again in our room this year. With our sensory based program, we are always enjoying messy play.
MESSY PLAY - our children have been given endless opportunities with a variety of materials to build imagination and creativity. Through sensory experiences, they are able to respond to what they see, hear, feel, touch and smell. They express their feelings and thoughts through colour, texture and shapes. Some of these experiences have been sand finger painting, feather play, feather collaging, leaves, sandpit, balloons, bubbles, finger painting. sponge painting and playdough. Messy play is designed with children's natural curiosity in mind. It encourages a positive approach to new experiences. There is no RIGHT way for children to do messy play, building self-confidence and self-esteem. Through messy play, children can develop concentration, problem solving and planning. Messy play can offer an outlet for feelings, experiences and thoughts.
Thankyou Sam and Jothi.
A big welcome to our new children in the toddler room, Allira, Violet and Oliver. We have been getting to know one and other within the past few weeks and developing new relationships with our new educators as well as our new peers.
A big happy birthday to Scarlett and Hendrix, who turned 2 in April.
The children are improving on recognising different animals, which helps them recognise familiar words like dog, cat, cow, pig etc. along with the appropriate sounds made by each animal. All the children show great enthusiasm and curiosity about animals. We hug and kiss the stuffed animals during the puppet story times. We have been focusing on physical activity's also the children have been dancing and doing the balancing obstacle courses which is getting the children to work on their gross motor skills as well as their balancing skills. After the children do the balancing obstacle course they love to run around the playground.
Over the past few weeks we have been spending a bit more time outside with the weather being so good. We have had box play, cubby house play, bikes, easels painting, play dough, hula-hoops and running races.
We have been learning about nature, doing lots of art activity's like collages with leaves and watering class plants, we also go for nature walks through the garden to see the bugs and insect.
We have also been learning common table manners like waiting until other have finished their food before proceeding to group time, putting our bowls away after eating and using our manners saying thank you and please.
We have been focusing on our cutting skills, the children have become more confident with the scissors, trying to hold them correctly and cut paper with assistance.
Reminder for parents to please bring a change of spare clothing, bed sheets including a warm blanket as the weather is slowly changing and all belonging names.
Thank you!
Kelly and Bailee
We've had such a busy and fabulous time in our Junior Kindy room. We have welcomed Emma, Jacob and their families to our room. As well as Hendrix, Amelia and Frances who transitioned from our Toddler room. Our friends Liam, Rose and Stella are transitioning to the Senior Kindy room and we are very excited and love watching them grow.
This month we focused on investigating colours, mixing colours andspray painting. The children have been exploring what happens when they mix it together.We also have had our garden adventure and watched a kookaburra video on the laptop with Miss Jasmine. We would love to extend the children's interest and have more activities to learn about our garden's exploring and discussing with the children different types of the garden animals in the next couple of weeks.
We also are having fun with sensory play, we have explored bubbles, water, wet/dry sand,finger painting, play dough and slimes. The children have gained confidence with these sensory activities.
We will be concentrating on our fine motor skills with writing, tracing, drawing, cutting and threading with hand and eye collaborate skills.
Please feel free to communicate with us, we are always ready to help you with yours and your child's need.
Thank you
Miss Cecilia Miss Jasmine and Miss Mymy
Wow what an amazing month we have had.
Our learning this month started around reflecting on our environment and moving the room slightly to allow for different opportunities to take place. The children decided to have a restaurant in home corner and we have absolutely loved exploring real food and texture through our play. The food we chose to play with reflects back on our diverse cultures within the room and what we eat at home. So it was great to see so much Noodles and Rice.
We have also been focusing on implementing our developmental dreams letters that most of us have returned. Thank you so much for your input it will really go a long way into delivering the best education and care for your child.
Over the next month we will continue to explore real foods through the restaurant, and then let this lead into where food comes from, and what food we can grow exploring nature and caring for the environment. We will also take our letter and number recognition forward and introduce name recognition activities to prepare us all for Kindergarten and the future.
Coming soon will be a class take home Teddy, with this Teddy will be a letter explaining its purpose. When it's your turn, please take home the Teddy and write a letter in the journal about what activities you did together, adding photos is also a great way to help your child remember as when you bring the Teddy back your child will stand up in front of the class and speak about what you did together.
And Lastly, if your child is sick, Please keep them home. This includes green running noses and coughs. We have an exclusion policy which states that children with the common cold are excluded from the service until the illness resides.
If you ever have any questions I am always available for a chat.
Miss Casey & Miss Kiran
Hello Families,
As we get to the end of April, the year is flying by so quickly and our pre-schoolers are so busy with their learning as our interests and ideas change every day.
Over the past few weeks we have begun exploring our alphabet, each week we introduce a new letter and explore the sound it makes. Each child has a chance to explore writing the letter and recognising it in words. We further extend on this knowledge and understanding by introducing activities and exploring art experiences that begin with the letter we are learning. So far, we have collaged the letter A, made buzzing bees and went on a bear hunt, and explored healthy eating with the hungry caterpillar. Our next letter is D, where we will begin to explore occupations such as Doctors.
We began an interest in fishing which started with some of the children making fishing rods with straw connectors. From this we expanded our knowledge by exploring types of fish and building a fishing pond. We explored the equipment needed for fishing such as lures, sinkers and a real fishing rod. We will continue to explore where this will lead us.
We have continued with exploring healthy bodies and learning how to take care of ourselves and others. The children quite enjoy practising their yoga, which we have now placed up on the wall for the children to explore whenever they feel the need to. We continue with meditation during rest times, listening to guided meditation on cd and exploring how our body works. We had a taste testing of different and unusual fruit and vegetables which was a huge hit as most of the children attempted to try new foods. Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to explore our physical body, the names of body parts and learning about our internal organs.
Lastly, as we move into the new term, we have accessed the next two French language games which explores numbers in the birthday party app and fruit in the zoo app. Each child has already had a turn in the new games and we continue to build our knowledge and understanding of the French language. We have begun incorporating the words into our everyday experiences and will continue to practise them as we gain confidence.
Thanks for a great month, our learning continues every day!
Miss Savannah and Miss Julie
